Two Favorite Babies
# I made Potato Latkas this morning. Christopher is doing a school project on Judaism and is serving them, with applesauce, to his class today.
# I fired some CCI CB .22 short rounds in my backyard yesterday. I've fired CB Long before, but I never tried the short little cases. They feed well in our Henry Lever Youth Model .22. Its tubular magazine holds 15 rounds of .22 long rifle or 18 rounds of .22 short. It's a blast to shoot, and the CB rounds are so quiet that no hearing protection is necessary.
# Colin Manning at Foster's Sunday Citizen - Crowd expected for concealed weapon hearing - New Hampshire and Colorado legislative committees will tomorrow consider bills to eliminate the requirement for a permit to carry concealed. Far out! Free Republic discussion here. The New Hampshire bill about which this article was written is SB454. [lrtdiscuss]
# What's the Download was introduced by the president of the Music Academy at last night's Grammy Awards. From the What's the Controversy? page:
So what's the deal with downloading music from the Internet? Everyone's talking about it - at home, at school, in chat rooms, in the media - and millions of music lovers are doing it. But a lot of people are confused. Some parents are telling their kids not to download; others think it's okay. Some downloaders are being sued by record companies, others are not. Even some of the people who create and sell music aren't sure what to think - or do - about technology and music.
Is downloading music legal? Is it okay to swap music files? Are we helping or hurting the music industry or our favorite artist if we download? And is it cool to use our computer to copy a CD for a friend?
Before heads start spinning, let's take a step back and get the big picture. Knowing the full story can help us sort everything out and figure out where we stand.
...
The big issue with downloading music isn't how we play the music, but where it comes from and what we do with it. If we download from one of the many cool legal sites no problem. But if we share or swap music files on non-licensed Internet sites (sometimes called P2P), or burn music onto blank CDs and give them away or sell them, then as a rule of thumb - it's not legal. (For more info on what's legal and what's not, check out our FAQ.)
Because of the impact that downloading has had on the music industry, the trade group that represents the biggest record companies, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), has begun to bring lawsuits against people who illegally download and swap music files on the Internet. They argue, and the courts agree, that downloading and swapping music illegally is just like stealing a CD from a store, and they want to encourage music lovers to get and enjoy their music without breaking the copyright laws.
Beyond the laws, what do the musical artists - the singers, songwriters, bands, engineers, arrangers - think about all this? Their opinions are as varied as the music they make. Some are all for downloading, some are against it, and some are in-between.